First official LineageOS builds roll out to replace CyanogenMod

The demise of Cyanogen OS, and by extension, the end of the CyanogenMod community-supported OS, left some users wondering how long it would be before the Lineage OS organisation and platform being put in place would take to have active builds ready to replace it.

Not very long is the answer to that question, as the first official builds start rolling out this weekend.

It’s not quite the very first build of Lineage OS, as the unofficial release has already attracted more than 50,000 downloads, but it’s the first official version being made available to users that need to make the transition away from CyanogenMod OS. For now, the safest way to make the switch is to delete all your apps and data from the device before installing and redownloading.

However, as this is recognised as being potentially inconvenient, there’s also a beta version of a data migration builds that the organisation’s working on. If that doesn’t work, you’ll have to do it the manual (and slow) way.

Of course, you’ll need a device that’s supported for LineageOS to work, but the team says that more than 80 handsets are already up and running, and that the full list of compatible devices will be made available over the coming week. The Lineage OS post says it’ll be supporting “Marshmallow and Nougat” capable devices, and that there will be a new build of the OS to download each week.

Perhaps most notably, Lineage OS won’t offer root by default, but is packaging an optional flashable ZIP file that’ll provide root for anyone that wants it. Once rooted, you shouldn’t need to do it again.

If you’re keen to get the official build as soon as it becomes available, it’ll be posted to the Lineage OS downloads page, but at the time of writing, it’s still showing a coming soon page.

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